Jun 20 2024

REPORT: Oil & Gas History News

Oil & Gas History News

Thanks for subscribing to this latest monthly look at America’s petroleum history. Our June image predicts the decline of coal-powered locomotives, thanks to the 1934 diesel-electric “streamliner” that revolutionized passenger train travel. The weekly summaries include Standard Oil opening a giant refinery near Chicago in 1889; a Baltimore art museum’s 1816 new “manufactured gas” lighting; lessons learned from a 1979 Pemex oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; and establishment of the Oklahoma Historical Society in 1893 and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists in 1930. Other June articles include a photographer called the “Oil Creek Artist” and a still celebrated 1894 drilling boom in Corsicana, Texas. We conclude with research requests posted on the website’s forum, and “Black Gold: A History of Texas Oil Boom Towns,” a traveling exhibit opening today at Ranger College.

This Week in Petroleum History Monthly Update

Links to summaries from five weeks of U.S. oil and natural gas history, including new technologies, oilfield discoveries, petroleum products, and pioneers. 

June 18, 1889 – Rockefeller builds Giant Refinery

Standard Oil Company of New Jersey incorporated a new subsidiary, Standard Oil Company of Indiana, and began processing oil at a new refinery in Whiting, Indiana, southeast of Chicago. The refinery, which became the largest in the United States by the mid-1890s, added pipelines in 1910 connecting it to Kansas and Oklahoma oilfields…MORE

June 11, 1816 – Manufactured Gas lights Baltimore Art Museum

The first commercial gas lighting of residences, streets and businesses began when Rembrandt Peale impressed Baltimore civic leaders by illuminating a room in his Holliday Street Museum using “manufactured gas.” His display dazzled them with a “ring beset with gems of light.” Peale and a group of investors founded the Gas Light Company of Baltimore, the first U.S. gas company…MORE

June 3, 1979 – Bay of Campeche Oil Spill

Drilling in about 150 feet of water, the semi-submersible platform Sedco 135 suffered a blowout 50 miles off Mexico’s Gulf Coast. The state-owned company Pemex well spilled 3.4 million barrels of oil before being brought under control nine months later. Considering the size of the Ixtoc 1 spill, its environmental impact was limited, according to a 1981 report…MORE   

May 27, 1893 – Oklahoma Historical Society founded

Before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) was founded during the annual meeting of the Oklahoma Territorial Press Association in Kingfisher. An early mission included collecting and distributing newspapers published in the territory…MORE

May 20, 1930 – Geophysicists establish Professional Society

Earth scientists in Houston established the Society of Economic Geophysicists. In 1937, the organization adopted the name Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) to foster the “expert and ethical practice of geophysics in the exploration and development of natural resources.” SEG in 2024 reported a membership of more than 10,000 worldwide…MORE 

Energy Education

Diesel-Electric Power sets Speed Record 

A new diesel-electric “streamliner,” the Burlington Zephyr, pulled into Chicago’s Century of Progress exhibition after a nonstop, 13-hour “dawn to dusk” run from Denver. Powered by an eight-cylinder, two-cycle, 600-horsepower diesel engine developed by General Motors for Navy submarines, the stainless steel train traveled the 1,015 miles from Denver in just over 13 hours, a passenger train record. The widely publicized 1934 trip cut steam locomotive times by half. During its record-breaking run, the Zephyr burned just $16.72 worth of diesel fuel (about four cents per gallon). The same distance in one of the 50,000 smoke-belching, coal steamers cost $255. Construction innovations included specialized shot-welding that joined sheets of stainless steel and a direct-connect 600-volt DC generator. Hollywood’s RKO Pictures capitalized on streamliner popularity in 1934 with “The Silver Streak.”

Learn more in Adding Wings to the Iron Horse.

Featured Articles

Photographer documents Earliest Oilfields

John A. Mather accomplished in Pennsylvania’s oil region what photographers Matthew Brady and James Gardner documented on Civil War battlefields. With his studio in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Mather became the new industry’s premier photographer, amassing more than 20,000 glass plate negatives, “one of the finest pictorial records of growth and development of any early all-American industry.”

Learn more in Oilfield Photographer John Mather.

Water Well finds Oil in Corsicana, Texas

A contractor hired by Corsicana in 1894 to drill a water well on 12th Street found oil instead, launching the first Texas oil boom seven years before the more famous Spindletop gusher. Although the discovery brought great prosperity — and helped launch a popular brand of chili — the city paid the contractor only half the $1,000 fee since their agreement had been for drilling a water well. 

Learn more in First Texas Oil Boom.

Research Forum

Wayne Canada Gasoline Pump — Preserving a rare 1930s Canadian pump. 

“I recently saved an uncommon Wayne 50A “showcase” gas pump from a metal recycling facility here in Canada. I didn’t have much time for details as it was literally standing in the scrap yard beside the metal chipping machine.”

Name of Offshore Drilling Rig — Seeking the name of ODECO platform from 1970s. “I’m doing research on my late father, James R. Reese Sr., who worked in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1970s and into the 1980s, and I’m trying to find the name of a rig he worked on for ODECO. We believe it may have been called the Ocean Endeavour.”

Eastern Oklahoma History — Writer looking to connect petroleum exploration and railroad growth. “I’m writing a memoir that touches on Oklahoma, where I’m from originally, and I would like to learn more about what role did oil and gas exploration play in the expansion of the railroads into the Cherokee Nation in eastern Oklahoma in the late 1800s.”

If you have an answer — or a question — see Petroleum History Research Forum.

Museum News

Ranger College unveils Traveling Exhibit

Today is opening day of “Black Gold: A History of Texas Oil Boom Towns” at Ranger College in Ranger, Texas. The Golemon Library exhibit will travel to Eastland County schools and then be available to other schools, events, or museums for the cost of shipping only, according to Assistant Librarian Helen Cozart. “We are excited to share our newest project with you,” she adds. “Visit the website to schedule the exhibit at your venue or feel free to call or email. This exhibit tells the story of life in the oil patch and the people who made it work.”

Thanks for reading our free newsletter. Please donate to support this growing network that includes oil patch historians, educators, students, museum directors, curators — and college librarians. Your support funds the AOGHS website while we add more articles, images and research links. Also, while on vacation this summer, please visit one of America’s many oil and gas museums. The chance to talk with volunteer docents, often retired geologists or other industry professionals, makes any stop worthwhile.

— Bruce Wells